Here are the first 5 minutes of Bill's interview! Unfortunately, we had some connection issues so we had to cut the recording short, but below is a brief synopsis of what we talked about:
What would you tell your 30 year old self teaching tennis? To not stay at the club the whole time- Go and be with your family! Who are your mentors? Branch Curington, Ruth Lay Teaching Pro Mentors: Jerry Baskin ED: John Callen, Henry Talbert from Southern California Peers and Colleagues: Andrea Sanders and Darren Potkey Maria Cercone, Sandy Hastings, Mary Hatfield
You have a unique hobby of collecting golf balls- what's the rough estimate of golf balls you've picked up over the years? Conservatively, more than 5k and less than 10k (and sidenote: Bill gives most of them away!)
Rapid Fire Questions If you could have a meal with 1-3 people, who would it be: Eric Voges, Mary Hatfield, and Sandy Hastings at Champy's Chicken in Chattanooga.
Last night's dinner: The best New York Pizza south of New York at a local place called Napoli's with my wife Bonnie and two good friends from Southern California.
One surprising fact about yourself: I've been walking and exercising a lot more and lost 55lbs! What are you reading/watching/or listening to right now? I watched the Superbowl (my kids knew all the words to Snoop Dog, Dr. Dre, Eminem, 50 cent-- who they are now calling $1.50 since he has bulked up a little bit!). We also watched the new Jack Reacher series on Amazon Prime.
What's one item on your bucket list? I'd like to drive across the country, to the west coast, taking my time, however long it takes in my Tesla. When are you coming out with your cookbook about the best places to eat in the United States? It's still happening! A lot of my best eating has been at Gas Stations. Today we ate at a place called Weezer's in Gainesville, GA and the food was great there too.
Is there anything you'd like to mention/any shout outs? The sport I've been playing the most in the last year and a half is Pickleball and it's going to grow, but The USTA has the greatest delivery system for youth tennis/for any sport- look at the tournament structure, the coaches, the facilities, and everything that is available. There is no other sport that comes close to what tennis does for people (the opportunity, the life skills) and we need to focus on increasing the amount of junior tennis and the support for it!
Music provided by Bensound.com
